Salmon Mountain: Rock Lake

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

Klamath National Forest

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4

Dark teal line for day 3. Click for map.

(Day 3 of 6 4.) I got a bit more than halfway through breakfast before the dread of anticipation of the day's hike got to me and my stomach threatened to bring it all up. Just five more miles, I told myself, and there's a former fire lookout peak to bag. I pushed back any thoughts of bruising and scrapes the overgrown trail might produce. I tried to push back the thought that everything I pushed forward through would have to be faced twice. Just five miles and a peak barely off trail and a second with over 1000 feet of prominence if I'm up for it, then camp in the meadows where there are springs. That's all of the plan for the day. Just five short, brush pushing miles. I tried to push the dread back again, but "back" is where the automatic functions hang out and my stomach wasn't having any of it. I sealed up breakfast and packed up.

light through the trees high up — Light cresting the mountain.

My first task was to find how the trail continued after the bare patch that extended down to my camp. It took a bit of poking. The trail is very dim, but generally rises through the area. I found it eventually. The trail continues to rise where it is brush choked, helping to accentuate that the way back will be harder. The way to that spot was downhill, but felt flat with all the friction offered by the vegetation.

Eagle Creek drainage — Looking down Eagle Creek.

I got to another spot where the mountain was moist and lost the trail again. I fought against the immediate thought that perhaps I should just turn back. My search for trail turned up a driver's license and other cards proving other people come through here. I knew that from the bushes. I never had to stoop to push through them. If only bears came this way, I would have to crawl. Deer will keep it open higher, but there is a lot of stooping and crouching involved for a human on that path. These paths allow me to walk. Well, they allow me to swim a breast stroke through the bushes in an upright posture. People do come here. I picked up the plastic. The cards were faded and expired. Whatever pack explosion put them there happened a while back.

close up of lilies — The leopard lilies are pretty things.

Once found, I continued on the trail only to find myself searching again after another short walk. The refrain of "maybe I should turn back" rose quickly again. It wasn't the searching. That's just a game. It was the anticipation of the "reward" for finding the rest of the trail. I told myself just five more miles, but there was nothing "just" about those five miles. They promised to be arduous and they would all need to be faced again on the way back. If I'm going to be thinking "maybe I should turn back" every eighth of a mile, perhaps I should get it over with and do it? I might have got there, but those people pressing through those bushes have greater perseverance than I. I got it over with. I turned back.

white orchids of small size — Bog orchid below the leopard lilies.

I noticed the fire ring near where I found the cards on the way back. It sat beside some flat, dry ground and could be a spot either of desire or of desperation. The outdoor space it offered felt small to me, closed in by the trees, but rather pleasant with the flowers and it is always nice to have a water source.

fire ring among the forest litter — A fire ring beside the trail. It may have a bit of trail sign, too.

A snake crossed my path about 200 feet short of my camp, bumping and rattling as it went. Always nice to know there's one nearby. It was already warm, which contributed to turning back. I'm pretty sure that when the chance of thunder storms fizzled, so did the supposed cooler air I was supposed to have. I climbed back through the bushes that were a real pain with the water for camping and back down to the rushing water.

water in bushes — There's water down there somewhere, rushing loudly past. The break in the green for the trail isn't that big.

The water is the low point, give or take. I started to climb. A bush gave a soft noise with each step as I passed it. I didn't quite react, but I looked and noticed a pattern in the shade. It was not of the diamonds along the back but of the stripes around the tail, but it gave me pause. Two rattlesnakes before 10AM.

pattern under the bushes — Shade should not have patterns quite like that. The second rattlesnake of the day. The head is down to the right of the tail stripes.

So I worked my way back up and with every step got more comfortable for putting a bit of brushy trail behind me instead of the promise of brushy trail ahead of me. (I also started to get flashing red messages from the camera to finally remember I'd set the ISO to 6400 and every photo I had taken up to that point was ruined by noise. Oops. Ouch. That snake picture could have been so much cooler.)

yellow specled oak galls — One day these black oaks may be nice and tall and give shade instead of a lot of trouble. For now, they show off their galls well.

upper reaches of Eagle Creek — Trail sure isn't apparent from this angle. There should be two junctions up on that saddle ahead.

I arrived back at the saddle and junctions and decided to have a better look for the Eagle Creek Trail this time. I poked downward and even found a line of open space with cut bits of wood in it, but I think the trail leaves off at the furthest west point where the more visible trail starts leaving to the right. It should cross around the side of the minor peak before gaining the ridge to drop downward. It very well might be getting a few people walking it, too.

something like a trail through the oaks — Trail? There's a lot of places one can push through at the top, but no telling how far they go.

I was sure looking forward to the next bit of shady trail, but it wasn't yet shady in the morning. It was still nice for being a stretch with no need to swim through bushes closing in over it.

I found a bright yellow spider on a dogwood going to seed. It seems to be a six-spotted orbweaver.

bit of a view — Some of that northeast view.

I thought a bit about perhaps taking the camp site at the saddle east of Youngs Mountain and maybe using it as a base to climb it and Potato Mountain. Nope. I was quite tempted to see if I could just hike up and over Youngs Mountain rather than around, but I needed to get more water so skipping the nice little stream seemed a poor choice. Under the forest, I kicked a lot of sticks off the trail. If not me, then who? The bears clearly don't like them and are walking on the outside away from them, gradually moving the trail downhill away from the nice, flat tread.

sunny leopard lilies — Getting back to the water, but now with sun on the leopard lilies that hang over the trail.

swallowtail butterfly on a leopard lily — A ragged butterfly came to drink from the leopard lilies.

little red blooms on a bush — Sit for long enough and one can notice the secret blooms on a big bush.

The trail wasn't quite so badly choked with vegetation as my memory claimed. There was way too much, but it wasn't even half the route. It was dreadfully hot. I didn't really want to look and see how hot. Advantage to the head high and higher brush because it made the local area cooler.

rocky peaks — Looking back at Potato Mountain.

small brush hills — The baked south and southwest slopes don't have much vegetation to worry about on the way to that ridge out there.

North Fork of Eagle Creek — Eagle Creek's north fork past a little bit of black oak promising to get bigger.

Once up on the ridge again, I felt finished with the brush, but that's not true either. There's brush up there, I just hadn't hit enough of it to be dreading it yet. Still, it's not too bad and only sometimes tries to get me lost.

up on the ridge top — Back on the ridge. I spent so much time kicking sticks under the trees that it's getting late and the sun is getting into my eyes.

The bare mountains to the north seem to be getting a little clearer.

buckwheat with huge pom poms on the ground — Life is touch up on the ridge. Sometimes you just have to keep your head down and out of the wind. Or perhaps it is just that these pom poms on this buckwheat are more than an inch across. It's very large.

Mary Blaine and the rest — The high ridge that is Potato Mountain, Dees Peak, Mary Blaine Mountain. I still want to visit the rocky mounds.

where to find the mine — Left the ridge and back to the area of the Salmon Summit Mine.

As I passed the Salmon Summit Mine, I noticed quite a few mosquitoes. There probably is water around there somewhere. I didn't go poking up to the mine to see where, although that is the obvious place to check. I figured it was late enough to be sitting comfortably in the sun at Rock Lake, so I might as well get there. Is the trail passable? Yep, I even managed to stick to it the whole way, finding my way through the bushy spot without too much trouble, but almost wandering off at a couple points before noticing I was getting off trail. It is a hard bit of trail to travel.

high peaks in the distance — Those high peaks to the east still seem so far off.

Down the other side was as easy as I remembered. Lots of good trail and a one tree to get over with a step. I decided to take the camp on the rocks north of the lake. It's a bit close to the trail, but who would be coming along? A Friday could have someone, but no one did.

lots of view — Coming down the slope to Rock Lake.

Rock Lake in the late light — Return to Rock Lake.

steep rocks behind — The lake has some cliffs behind it.

It's rather disturbing that there are fewer mosquitoes by Rock Lake than by Salmon Summit Mine. I did finally spot a possible amphibian in it. Something came up to the surface, then dropped back down into the debris in the bottom. It was bright orange on the bottom like a newt and moved a bit more like a fish. Probably a newt. It showed only once. I eventually headed back up to get food and set out directly under the stars once again.

north across the slopes — The northerly view. Is it getting smokier?

fireweed collection — Fireweed across the lake. The lake reflection got more perfect as the sun got lower.

The sun vanished behind a ridge rather than having a proper bit of setting, but I could watch the colors play out on the smoke to the north. I dropped to sleep, but apparently I had set some internal alarm because I woke a little after midnight when the sun had set to find the comet out. It was close to the horizon where stars were vanishing in smoke and distant city glow, but it was visible. It seemed to be a vertical line rising from a point above Salmon Mountain. I decided to have a go at playing with the camera again and this time managed to get it to an 8 second exposure but could not actually see where I was aiming. Getting a picture of the comet still didn't work. On the ground, plants were in the way of anything low in the sky. I then set it on the bear canister, but that had too much vibration. The image I wanted had passed by the time I got things sorted anyway. It was still fun to watch the visitor another hour or so before falling back to sleep.

blurry stars and a comet — The blurry stars. The shadow of Salmon Mountain against the horizon and something of the comet are there with, well, a little bit of imagination. The stars are a lot sharper on the ground based photos.

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